Want to try other things too (IE. thinking about BJJ)

Hi guys.

I've been doing bujinkan now for about three months. Despite all the flaming and **** I actually like it. BBT may suck as a combat art, but then again, so do I with so little experience, so it's (for now, at least) allright. I'm not in it for the ninjering, I just wanted to do Martial Arts and chose my first art by location (the closer to home the better), so my mind is still very much open to all possibilities.

The thing is, after I came across bullshido.net & the term aliveness my interest has been awakened. I want to try out this method of training too. If BBT is all about dead training I want to see the other side too so that I don't have to base my opinions on random anonymous internetfucktard's postings only. There are however a few questions I'd like to pose to you guys before going ahead.

First, and my biggest concern: how badly does grappling and guitar playing combine? Not that I'm your super guitar hero or anything, but it's a thing that I can't really live without for too long. How easy is it to get your fingers wrenched, bruised and broken? This may sound funny, but this is a really big factor for me. With BBT's relaxed and hmh, dead, training methods I haven't really had any concerns with this, but with resisting opponents I'd think there's always a chance, right?

Second, my left eye is completely blind. How much does that work against you with grappling? With stand-up-arts it's lacking in sense of depth which means my Uke's are more prone to accidents. When being close up I'd imagine having a smaller field of vision would have a much bigger effect. What do you think?

Finally, since I'm going to do it like you guys like it I want to make sure that I'm really going to a real dojo with credible teachers and methods and not some crappy McDojo ****. I've been using my google skills, and found out that my city (Helsinki, Finland) really has only one choice when it comes to grappling -- Alliance BJJ club. Now, I'm not so optimistic that I'd think that the dojo has any active bullshidoers that might answer this post, but they do list their teachers. Any ideas on these guys (when it comes to being a credible BJJ practicioner): Fabio Gurgel (seems that sherdog finds a couple of MMA matches from 90's by that name. 3-2-0), Alex Monsalve, Marcelo Garcia (sherdog knows the name but no matches) and Lucio Linhares (4-2-0), all Alliance Black belts. I'm not sure which of those have actually visited their dojo, but I'll assume that at least the top local guys have trained with them. Along with this the dojo itself prides with being the top dojo in Finland when it comes to BJJ and submission wrestling. Are these credible enough in your eyes?

Intrestingly they seems to teach something called Hokutoryu Ju-jutsu, which they promote as your choise if all you want to learn is self defence. Anyone ever heard of it?

I've never even come close to hurting my fingers in BJJ, toes on the other hand... And BJJ kneerolling you could do blind, I'm sure you could figure stand up out with one eye though. You should wear a patch like a pirate to intimidate your opponents.

I've never even come close to hurting my fingers in BJJ, toes on the other hand... And BJJ kneerolling you could do blind, I'm sure you could figure stand up out with one eye though. You should wear a patch like a pirate to intimidate your opponents.

I read about someone on the nhbgear forums who did bjj completely blind. I'm sure it would be difficult, but clearly not impossible to do it without the use of one eye.

I have had my fingers wrenched at grappling class. My sparring partner grabbed my hand and my right index knuckle made an almighty pop. It didn't hurt at the time but it's been noticeably weaker and if it gets twisted the wrong way it hurts like hell...like enough to bring tears to my eyes. It happened months ago so I think it's safe to say I've got some ligament damage there.

1) My hands are often very sore from such tight gripping, but I've never had an issue.

2) Your vision shouldn't be a concern, there's very little you'll need with respect to depth perception and you'll usually be in contact with your partner. And yeah you should totally wear an eyepatch.

3) I can't comment on the school. Check it out and remember, it'll be very hard to not take a few steps up from BBT.

I won't tell you to drop everything else, but doing BJJ has been absolutely fantastic, and 6 months in I still look forward to every class.

Hm. I was referring to the point that as I'm half blind I and up close to the opponent I'm not necessarily seeing what his right arm (in guard) is doing. While grappling I'm pretty much safe from harm I guess except they'll have an easier time putting on locks to my left arm(?), but with MMA rules I'm thinking I'd get the left side of my face punched in..

I can't speak for MMA, but for BJJ I don't think you'll miss much, I find I can usually see things with both eyes, or not at all. You may find you develop much stronger control technique on your left side because you can't see as well, as opposed to people like myself who are happy to think "oh I can see that arm, it's not doing much" until it chokes me out.